Social networking applications (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, etc.) provide the ability for users to create and share social media content. This content includes text comments, photos, videos, status updates, “likes,” etc. This content is typically stored on a provider server and can be accessed by users on client devices such as smart phones through each provider's interface.
Users of social networking applications often create social media content that relates to a geographic location (or an event at a geographic location). For example, a user may provide real-time status updates of a parade. However, there is no way to assure that the user who creates the social media content is actually at the parade. This may have negative effects such as, for example, when a user provides a negative review of a restaurant when the user was never actually at the restaurant.
U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0324018 to Metcalf et al., the content of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety, discloses the creation of social networking spaces referred to as “bubbles,” whereby users in the same bubble can interact with each other. Metcalf's bubbles are event-focused and users create (or join) a bubble in order to interact with each other using the system. U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0246004 to Book et al., the content of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety, discloses a system for providing feedback associated with an experience at a merchant. U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2010/0318571 to Pearlman et al., the content of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety, discloses social networking “channels.”
The prior art fails to disclose the present system for collecting and sharing geo-specific content. What is desired is a system for receiving and sharing content based on geographic location, that updates geo-specific content as a user changes location, and that utilizes subject-matter channels. This way, a user can “watch” geographic- and subject-relevant content, which updates as the user changes location. Therefore, it would be beneficial to have a superior location-based social networking system.